Operation Broken Reed: Truman's Secret North Korean Spy Mission That Averted World War III | 
 enlarge | Authors: Arthur L. Boyd, Arthur Boyd
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 94078
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0786720867
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.90428
EAN: 9780786720866
ASIN: 0786720867
Publication Date: November 16, 2007
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Product Description
At the height of the Korean War, President Truman launched one of the most important intelligence - gathering operations in history. So valuable were the mission's findings about the North Korean-Soviet-Chinese alliance that it is no stretch to say they prevented World War III. Only one man — sworn to secrecy for a half-century—survived Operation Broken Reed. Arthur Boyd recalls his role as cryptographer on a team of Army Rangers, Navy Frogmen, Air Force officers, and CIA operatives that posed as the captured crew of a B-29 bomber in January 1952. Given cover names and cyanide capsules in case of discovery, the men were transported by Chinese Nationalists wearing Communist uniforms across North Korea, where undercover allies delivered information about troop strengths, weaponry, and intention. Fraught with danger, the mission came apart on its last day when the Americans came under fire from Chinese forces wise to the operation. The members of Broken Reed supplied Truman with proof of massive Chinese and Soviet buildups and a heavy Soviet bomber group in Manchuria, fully loaded with atomic weapons. With the potential destruction of the world outlined in front of him, Truman chose not to escalate the Korean War, saving millions of lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 An engrossing book! August 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author writes with much detail about the day to day experiences these men faced during their mission using humor and emotion to bring the reader closer to the story.
Get the story straight - Carefully read the entire text to include the Prologue, the Epilogue and the Afterword. July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Please read my comment in response to the negative critical reader review offered by R. Axelrod. It is important that the reader fully understands the fact that this book is based upon fact, not fiction. The nine Americans and sixty-six Nationalist Chinese military that died demand to be honored for what they accomplished. Had they failed, a third world war and a possible nuclear holocaust would have claimed the lives of millions. This book is not, as Axelrod stated,"a fraud." Abundant historical and circumstantial evidence fully supports the authenticity of the mission. As I stated in my comment, "I consider Axelrod's review to be cruel and a disgraceful insult to the memory of my dead comrades. He drove the nail in the coffin with his closing comment, "You can delight in a creative adventure story." Anyone has the ability to lay claim to being some kind of "specialist," but often their words fail to support this assertion.
 Looks like a fraud July 17, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am convinced that Broken Reed is fiction pretending to be fact. Being an academic, I regard fraud as a serious office.
Here are some of the claims in the book that I find particularly implausible or nonsensical. I suppose in any true spy story there are likely to be a few implausible claims, but not nearly as many as this book has.
* Truman authorized the mission without telling the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
* The landing was made deliberately close to the front lines, and then the convoy set out along the coast road moving north away from the front line. As the author says later, being near the front lines is dangerous. No explanation is given for why the landing took place so far south when the first leg of the trip was to go north on the coast road.
* Several dozen Korean soldiers loyal to the South (and presumably "stay-behinds") could be assembled and moved to a specific place without causing alarm.
* The stay-behinds were able to capture two working T-34 medium tanks, as well as a half-track, a reconn vehicle, several trucks, plenty of ammunition, and hundreds of gallons of gasoline.
* The stay behinds were able to move all this equipment to a specific place in North Korea.
* The two most senior stay behinds for no specific reason identified themselves to the Americans as former bodyguards to Chiang Kai-shek. The book repeatedly makes makes two points: it was very important that none of the participants should be able to identify each other, and it was very important to conceal that Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwan was at all involved in Korea War.
* In 1952 the author was told that the mission would remain secret until would be declassified in exactly 46 years, i.e. 1998.
* No records exist about this mission, even after the mission was declassified in 1998 when the author started work on the book.
* The only piece of tangible evidence the author kept was a cyanide capsule he was issues, but then after saving it for many years he discarded it before he wrote the book.
I do not dispute that the author is a veteran of the Korea War, or that he is a good story teller. But the book needs a better editor, and a fictional classification. If you stop believing the events actually happened, you can delight in a creative adventure story.
This book should be made into a movie. July 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have know Arthur, Nell, and Lanny Boyd since about 1995. I remember some time in about 1998, when Mr. Boyd came into my pharmacy and asked me how to dispose of a cyanide capsule. At first I ask myself why does this man have such a capsule, then knowing Mr. Boyd for the time I had, I figured he had been involved in some sort of highly classified work in his life.
I have absolutely enjoyed reading "Operation Broken Reed". The story was captivating and heart warming. I believe some long overdue recognition should be given to those men. This book would make an incredible movie that would share the story of these men and their mission that averted another world war and possible total nuclear destruction. This story needs to be documented and preserved for future generations.
A Fresh Memoir From an Old Soldier March 13, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Colonel Boyd has brought to our attention a successful American intelligence-gathering sortie into North Korea in 1951 that was previously unknown, and declassified just ten years ago. As a young lieutenant he was the code and signals officer for a brief foray behind the Korean/Chinese lines to ascertain the strength and intent of communist forces across the entire Korean peninsula. Authorized by President Truman personally, and not known to our military or civilian intelligence services, this venture prompted Truman to modify the United Nations response to the communist juggernaut and accept the partitioning of the Korean peninsula. By Boyd's reckoning this intelligence coup may well have saved the world from nuclear war. Boyd's story reads better than spy fiction, from a remove of over fifty years he recalls fascinating details of an operation that took the lives of seven of the team, leaving Boyd alive with two critically wounded comrades whom he believes may have died in hospital after their rescue. Boyd is unassuming, modest, and self-effacing in his descriptions of brave men travelling, hiding, and working in a sea of enemies. Oh behalf of my children and grandchildren I thank him for what he did in 1951. On behalf of all Americans I thank him for telling us that extraordinary leaders - President Truman in this instance - have the sense and guile to get a proper database before making the most difficult and important of decisions.
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